Battling Murray into Tokyo last four

Published on Saturday 8 October 2011 12:47

Andy Murray’s impressive late-season form continued in Tokyo as he forged past David Nalbandian to set up a semi-final meeting with Spain’s David Ferrer at the Rakuten Japan Open Championships.

The world No 4, who has a realistic chance of robbing Roger Federer of third spot before the season is out, finally prevailed in a second-set see-saw of breaks to win 6-4, 7-5 in an hour and 40 minutes.

The Scot will now meet Ferrer in the last four as he bids to win back-to-back tournaments following his success in Thailand, with Rafael Nadal a possible opponent in the final.

Ferrer – Tokyo winner in 2007 – outmuscled Czech Radek Stepanek 6-2 7-6 in his quarter-final, and Murray acknowledged: “Ferrer’s a tough opponent. I had a great [semi-final] match with him at the Australian Open. There will be a lot of long points. I’ve got to be ready for a tough fight. It’s my eighth or ninth match in maybe eight or nine days. I need a massage and a good night’s sleep.”

It was his tenth success in a row for Murray and he has lost just once in 22 matches and demonstrated just why here as he saw off Argentina’s former world No 3.

After an even start which saw serve held for the first four games, Murray broke thanks largely to a lob and volley combination, setting up a break point that Nalbandian validated with a double fault. He cemented the break to love and then forced Nalbandian to hit long and wide to see out the first set. The second started in a similar fashion, with serve prevailing until the seventh game when Nalbandian netted as he attempted to save three break points, only to rob Murray’s serve off him in the next game.

Some aggressive baseline hitting helped Murray make it three breaks in a row and set up a chance to serve for the match, but a loss of concentration allowed the Argentine to continue a remarkable run of games and break back to 5-5. Four straight games became five as Nalbandian hit a forehand long and Murray did not miss a third chance to see out the match, serving out for the win.

“I played well,” Murray said of his performance afterwards. “I served very well for the most part. He is one of the best returners in the game, so I didn’t give him too many opportunities. At the end he started to come at me a little bit and I made a few mistakes and I got a little bit tentative.”

Top-seed Nadal, meanwhile, had to dig deep after coming under heavy fire from Colombia’s Santiago Giraldo in a brutal 7-6, 6-3 quarter-final victory.

While never in serious danger of losing his Japan Open title, Nadal survived a barrage before unleashing a late salvo of his own to come through in a shade over two hours. “I played too short today – two or three, sometimes four metres behind the baseline,” said Nadal, who faces fourth-seed Mardy Fish in the semi-finals. “That’s something I need to improve tomorrow. I have to be more aggressive with my forehand. If I don’t it’s impossible for me to be in the final.”

Giraldo, the world No 53, went down swinging, sticking with his strategy of going for broke on almost every shot in a pulsating match on centre court. Nadal secured the first set tiebreak 8-6 with a heavily-sliced first serve which tied Giraldo up in knots.

The Spaniard then broke early in the second and, although Giraldo threatened to climb off the canvas and strike back at 5-3 down by forcing a break point, Nadal wrapped up a straight-sets win. Fish, who has won 20 of his last 24 matches, fought back to beat the 18-year-old Australian, Bernard Tomic, 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.